(Sep 23, 2009) The new swine flu virus was first detected in Mexico on April 23, 2009.

A few days later, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) claimed the so-called "Mexican flu" had infected more than 1000 people with 60 deaths.

The novel infectious agent was reported as a hybrid of pig, bird and human flu viruses, including genetic elements from European and Asian swine viruses.

The official name of the virus is: Influenza A: subtype H1N1. Most puzzling about this new swine virus is that the virus has not been detected in pigs or in pig farmers.

By May 9, the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) declared that up to 2 billion people could be infected worldwide if the current epidemic continued to expand with repeated outbreaks. As of this writing (September, 2009), there are a total of 356,000 pandemic cases worldwide, with 3925 deaths. The three most infected countries are: United States (44,500 cases); Australia (36.